Evening at home
Evenings at home are rare events for me; normally there is some activity. Sometimes there is a meeting or a conference to attend; at other times there may be a friendly
invitation which cannot be refused. But occasionally I do get a chance to spend an evening by myself. I like to spend such evenings in different ways. One of these ways is to spend some time in the garden. After many years in a flat on the first floor. I have now acquired a ground floor flat with a stretch of land. The years I have missed on gardening are so many that there is a compulsive need within the to spend time with the plants and the flowers. They are growing things and as new leaves appear and buds begin to blossom it gives me a deep sense of satisfaction. Actually I have always believed that a house becomes a home when the postman brings letters and the flowers begin to blossom.
Sometimes I like to put on some records and have a lazy evening with music. There is hardly any time to listen to good music, music that you truly want to listen to, not some transistor or radio blaring in the background. I don’t really care for loud music or pop music. I like it played soft. It casts a spell in the right atmosphere, it helps one to relax and concentration is shifted from problems and anxieties to the soothing sound of music. I like serious songs and serious music. Once in a while, however, it is an entirely different enjoyment to have a music party. A party of this kind is not focused on the food but on music. A group of friends who have similar tastes in music may come over for an evening and thus one enjoys both their company and the music.
Sometimes we like to sit down to a game of bridge. Not that we are very good at the game, but in our family circle it is very enjoyable. Winning or losing is not what matters. What we really like about it is the battle of wits. We all strive to win and to guess each other’s hand.
Occasionally, I do like to spend an evening trying out some new recipes. It is great fun to try them and surprise the family that evening and then be appreciated by them. It is much easier to try two or three of them in one evening than to spend different evenings on each of them. Reading is something I find irresistible. That is the easiest thing to do. It makes one truly independent for there is no dependence on friends, on music, on company or anything else. One can simply take a book and be happy and inhabit a world of one’s own. It may be a world of experience or a dream world, but it is a world which gradually absorbs one.
Can one spend an evening as one plans ? Perhaps not. It is never possible to do so. There may be unexpected visitors or unwanted claims on one’s time and the evening may turn out to be very different from what was planned. It may not be possible to call one’s time one’s own.
